Why is Qingming a "Cold Food Festival"?

Qingming Festival is a very important solar term at first. As soon as Qingming Festival arrives, the temperature rises, which is a good time for spring ploughing and spring planting. Therefore, it is said that "before and after Qingming Festival, we should plant melons and beans". The agricultural proverb "Planting trees is better than Qingming".

Later, because Qingming and cold food were close, and cold food was the day when people banned fire to sweep graves, gradually, cold food and Qingming became one, and cold food became another name for Qingming, and it also became a custom in Qingming. On Qingming, no fireworks were used, but only cold food was eaten.

Legend of the Cold Food Festival:

It is said that during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Jin Xiangong's concubine Li Ji set a poisonous plot to kill Prince Shen Sheng and Shen Sheng was forced to commit suicide in order to let her son Xi Qi succeed to the throne. Shen Sheng's younger brother, Zhong Er, fled into exile to escape the scourge. During his exile, Zhong Er suffered humiliation. Originally, most of the courtiers who went out with him went out one after another. There are only a few loyal people who have been following him. One of them is called meson push. On one occasion, Zhong Er fainted from hunger. In order to save Zhong Er, Jiezitui cut a piece of meat from his leg, cooked it with fire and gave it to Zhong Er to eat. Nineteen years later, Zhong Er returned to China and became a monarch, namely Jin Wengong, one of the famous five tyrants in the Spring and Autumn Period.

After Jin Wengong came to power, he greatly rewarded those courtiers who shared his joys and sorrows, except for the meson push. Someone pleaded for mesons in front of Jin Wengong. Jin Wengong suddenly remembered the past, feeling guilty, and immediately sent someone to ask meson to take the court to be rewarded as an official. However, after several trips, the meson could not be pushed. Jin Wengong had to go to please. However, when Jin Wengong came to the meson pusher's house, he saw the door closed. Jiezitui didn't want to see him, and had already hid in Mianshan (now southeast of Jiexiu County, Shanxi Province) with his mother on his back. Jin Wengong asked his body-guard to search Mianshan, but he couldn't find it. So, someone had an idea, saying, it's better to set Yamakaji free, set fire on three sides, and leave one side behind, and mesons will come out by themselves when the fire starts. Jin Wengong ordered Yamakaji to be promoted. Unexpectedly, the fire burned for three days and three nights. After the fire was extinguished, mesons were not pushed out after all. Looking up the mountain, the mother and the son were holding a charred willow tree and were dead. Jin Wengong looked at meson push's body and wept for a while. Then he buried the body and found that meson push's back was blocked with a willow tree hole, which seemed to have something. When I took it out, it turned out to be a piece of skirt with a bloody poem inscribed on it: I hope your master will always be clear. It's better to be a ghost without seeing it, than to accompany you as a remonstrator. If your master has me in his heart, remember my frequent introspection. I have a clear conscience in Jiuquan, and I am diligent and clear.

Jin Wengong hid the bloody book in his sleeve. Then meson tui and his mother were buried under the charred willow tree. To commemorate Jietui, Jin Wengong ordered Mianshan to be changed to "Jieshan", and an ancestral temple was built on the mountain, and the day when Yamakaji was released was designated as the Cold Food Festival, telling the whole country that fireworks were forbidden on this day every year, and only cold food was eaten.

When he left, he cut a section of charred willow and made a pair of clogs in the palace. He looked at it every day and sighed, "What a pity." "The first step" is the name of the ancient people's subordinates to respect each other between their superiors or peers, which is said to come from this.

in the second year, Jin Wengong led his ministers and went hiking in plain clothes to pay homage, expressing his condolences. Walking to the grave, I saw the dead old willow tree resurrected, with thousands of green branches, dancing in the wind. Jin Wengong looked at the resurrected old willow as if he had seen a meson push. He walked up to him respectfully, pinched a branch lovingly, braided a circle and put it on his head. After the sacrifice, Jin Wengong named the resurrected old willow "Qingming Willow" and named it Tomb-Sweeping Day.